Earlier today, Lehigh Valley announced their 2010 roster.  Similar to the past two years, the roster includes mostly minor league veterans who may be of short term help to the big club, rather then prospect types, but that certainly could change by years end with the names currently in Reading.  Once Joe Blanton is healthy, certainly expect Andrew Carpenter to anchor the Lehigh Valley rotation. As of now the following players make up the roster:

Catcher: Paul Hoover Soon to be 34, Hoover was a 23rd round pick of Tampa in the 1997 draft.  He will be starting his second season in Lehigh Valley and hit .253/.329/.339 with 1 HR and 28 RBI in 245 AB’s with the ‘Pigs.  Hoover threw out 25% on runners trying to steal on him last year and filled in capably at first base when Andy Tracy missed several games.  Hoover has spent small portions of six different seasons in the big leagues and obviously provides some major league depth if Ruiz or Schneider are hurt. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Preview, Roster Announced →

Just a bit ago the Reading Phillies roster was announced.

Catchers: Tuffy Gosewisch, Kevin Nelson

Infielders: Tagg Bozied, Ozzie Chavez, Melvin Dorta, Freddy Galvis, Kevin Mahar, Brandon Pinckney

Outfielders: Quintin Berry, Domonic Brown, Tyson Gillies, Mike SPidale

SP: Phillipe Aumont, Mike Cisco, Yohan FLande, Drew Naylor, Vance Worley

RP: Chance Chapman, Sergio Escalona, Sergio Escalona, Matt German,  BJ Rosenberg, Michael Schwimer, Jason Stephens, Mike Stutes.

Note: The pitcher breakdown into starter and reliever was done by me.  There has been no official announcement that I know of as to what the actual rotation would be, however this is the best guess, based on the roster as of the moment.

Update: An outstanding source (James) has Naylor in the rotation rather then Stutes.  Adjustment made.

As expected, follwing the Phils game against the Pirates yesterday, Infielders Wilson Valdez and Cody Ransom; Catcher Paul Hoover and OF DeWayne Wise, all were re-assigned to Lehigh Valley.  Wise, did have an opt out clause in his contract but he chose he accept his assignment, leading to the re-assignment of Quintin Berry to Reading (AA).

Both 1B Tagg Bozied and INF Melvin Dorta were moved down to Reading from the Lehigh Valley roster.

This is the way it currently looks in Allentown: 1B Andy Tracy, 2B Luis Maza, SS Brian Bocock, SS Wilson Valdez, 3B Cody Ransom, 3B Neil Sellers OF’s: Rich Thompson, Chris Duffy, John Mayberry, DeWayne Wise, Catchers: Paul Hoover and Dane Sardinha. Continue reading Final Cuts/Roster Adjustments →

The Phillies announced a number of releases yesterday of players up and down their minor league system, including some familiar names that have been with the organization for some time. The releases are as follows: Catchers Zak Farkas, Jorge Guerra, and John Purdom; Inf Eric Campbell and Yonderman Rodriguez; OF Freddy Guzman; and Pitchers Pat Overholt, Santos Hernandez, Eryk McConnell, Darren Byrd, Jared Simon, Jessie Zuber and Jason Salers.  Overholt was the most advanced home grown player of this group, having reached Triple A last year, but his inconsistencies continued taking him out of prospect status. Darren Byrd had been with the organization for five seasons but failed to rise above Clearwater (A). Similarly, Yonderman Rodriguez was released after five years in the organization, after seeing fairly regular time in CLearwater last season.

The Phils have released a number of Minor Leaguers over the last couple of days, a combination of 2009 mid to late round draft picks and others by whom there is little surprise.  The names are as follows: Pitchers Miguel Matos, Mark Doll, Jason Standridge, Angelo Sanchez and Walter Tejada; SS Jesus Vilegas Andino and Evan Porter; 1B Gaby Martinez as well as Outfielders Carl Uhl and Javis Diaz.

Early reports out of CLearwater also indicate that Andrew Carpenter will head North with the Phils to take Blanton’s roster spot.  Kyle Kendrick will join the rotation in place of the injured Blanton and Carpenter should fill the role of Kendrick as he is capable of pitching multiple innings in relief. The 24 year old Carpenter pitched very well in the Lehigh Valley rotation last year going 11-6 with a 3.35 ERA in 25 starts over 156 innings, with a WHIP of 1.34.

The Phillies announced the signing of two pitchers today, Ty Taubenheim and Josh Fogg.  I am not quite sure where Fogg fits in after being released by the Mets but the 33 year old Fogg  may be fighting for the last job in the Phils pen or be headed to Lehigh Valley.  Last year pitching for Colorado, Fogg was 0-2 with a 3.74 ERA in 24 games (1 start).  He had an uncharacteristically good WHIP of 1.13, as opposed to his WHIP the rest of his major league career which hovered between 1.45 and 1.55.  Fogg’s signing could certainly have some impact on Rule 5 pick David Herndon, who has had an extremely impressive Spring, giving up his first earned run yesterday. Fogg is a veteran of nine major league seasons who has a career mark of 62-69 with a 5.03 ERA and 1.46 WHIP.

Taubenheim, 27, was a 19th round pick of the Brewers in the 2003 draft.  He has spent the last two seasons at AAA Indianapolis (Pirates), starting 38 games   Last season, Taubenheim was 7-9 in 26 games (19 starts) with an impressive 3.65 ERA.  He walked 37 and struck out 63 in his 106 innings of work, with a WHIP sitting at 1.36. The 6’5 righty has seen Major League action in ’06, ’07’ and ’08, most prominently with the Blue Jays in 2006, appearing in 12 games.

Some info on the Lehigh Valley and Reading rosters, with most information coming courtesy of Jeff Schuler, the Lehigh Valley beat writer for the Morning Call.  The following players were transferred from the Lehigh Valley roster to the Reading roster: Pitchers Mike STutes and Jason Stephens, Catcher Kevin Nelson, 3B Brandon Pinckney, 1B Brian Stavisky, and OF’s Kevin Mahar and Mike SPidale.  SS Ozzie Chavez who was re-assigned by the Phils to Minor League camp was assigned to the Reading group. Continue reading News and Notes →

I would like to start by thanking everyone for taking the time to respond to my earlier post.  I received good constructive criticism along with helpful ideas for the future.  Also a lot of you took the opportunity to ask interesting questions, so since many of you wanted to see more Q&A,  here goes…..

Continue reading Spring Training Mailbag →